Council has approved winter maintenance on Charland and Bertrand roads in the far east end of the city. It is a decision that some members of council feel will lead to an influx of similar requests.
Councillor Walter Wawrzaszek, along with a few others, have been pushing for the city to re-examine its rural roads policy.
"I brought this forward quite awhile back, I believe we have to start somewhere. All taxpayers deserve service for the taxes they pay to the city," said Wawrzaszek at Monday's meeting, and added "If this resolution passes tonight, it doesn't mean that every rural road will get snow plowing or upgrading. All roads have to be passed by council. I believe when we have money available, we would open up more roads."
Charland and Bertrand Roads are in the area of Kettle Lakes Provincial Park. The approved maintenance will service a total of six homes. Five on Charland, one on Bertrand.
The rural roads discussion has been ongoing at council meetings for over a year now, with many lengthy debates. The city currently maintains other rural roads such as McInnis Road, Racicot Road, Koivu Road, and Anderson Road.
"Anderson Road has the ditching on the side and ample room to push the snow, which kind of separates it from the setup of Charland Road," said Mayor Steve Black.
The city has a policy which outlines minimum width requirements needed for the municipality to assume responsibility.
"Our current policy as written would state that the residents would have to upgrade the roads, at their cost, and install a plow turnaround, making safe access for the plow," said Black.
Councillor Pat Bamford feels that additional services on cottage roads can be a double-edged sword.
"Let's say we went out and plowed those roads. Now somebody comes along and says 'I'd love to buy your property, are you getting roads plowed? Oh yes?' So now the value of the property goes up, and guess what happens, taxes go up," he said.
"In the end, a person is paying for the services they get," and added "we have a policy. I don't think its defensible to depart from it."
Councillor Rick Dubeau replied to Bamford by saying that the city does have policies, but they 'simply don't adhere to them'.
"We're doing a road, Penninsula Road, for three kilometres, just for ice fishermen," he said. "Can somebody tell me who authorized this?"
City Clerk Steph Palmateer said that Penninsula Road had been maintained since it was downloaded to the city by the provincial government.
"At that time, in '97 or '98, that road was servicing a functioning mine, so the province was maintaining it. We were now obligated to maintain it," said Palmateer.
Dubeau then mentioned that the city continues to plow the road past the final house, despite the presence of posted signs stating the road will not be maintained.
Councillor Andrew Marks said he would be supporting the motion based on 'fairness' and that Public Works should widen the road.
"None of these other roads that we currently support are that wide. I think that's an element of absolute fairness for taxpayers in that area of the city of Timmins," said Marks.
What has complicated matters, and has led to many contentious debates, is the fact that councils past have voted in favour of maintaining certain rural roads, and have denied others.
Bamford said council should be expecting more requests in the near future.
"We have all kinds of kilometres of rural roads and people are waiting, listening to what's happening tonight, and they will be right here in a few weeks. That's the problem," he said.
Councillor Noella Rinaldo said the city is currently paying for past 'mistakes' by other councils.
"People are demanding better service these days. Those are no longer 'cottages'. They chose to move out there, and we have go to draw the line, and we did when we drew up the policy 10 years ago," she said.
Black spoke about the fact that off of each of the rural roads the city currently maintains, there are additional roads with properties that do not get road maintenance.
"The policy is very clear. The policy says 'Upgrade the road, we'll assume it and maintain it," he said.
Voting in favour were Councillors Wawrzaszek, Joe Campbell, Rick Dubeau, Mike Doody, Andrew Marks.
Opposed were Bamford, Grzela, Rinaldo, and Black.
